Agnostic Muslim
THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
@Irfan Baloch
Many Pakistani have this mentality of ‘subhanallah! look at these wonderful Rich Arabs! Allah has blessed them with so much wealth and status!’
I’ve heard it from members in my own family, and I am not convinced that the root cause is always Arab vs Persian or Sunni vs Shia - those same relatives would then also demean and ridicule the Palestinians!
It never made sense to me, other than that these Pakistanis continue to cling to South Asian class systems, and the GCC Arabs with their bling and gaudy displays of wealth are the kind of ‘class’ these people aspire to.
Add in the fact that the holiest sites in Islam are located there and the Prophet was an Arab from the region, and you end up combining religious/historic reverence and respect with enormous wealth.
The final product - this rather servile attitude we see.
But when generations see little to no substantive change at home, and continue to lose hope of ever seeing change, attitudes like these towards a people considered ‘successful’ and ‘our kin’ are perhaps just a way for a people to continue to have hope.
Many Pakistani have this mentality of ‘subhanallah! look at these wonderful Rich Arabs! Allah has blessed them with so much wealth and status!’
I’ve heard it from members in my own family, and I am not convinced that the root cause is always Arab vs Persian or Sunni vs Shia - those same relatives would then also demean and ridicule the Palestinians!
It never made sense to me, other than that these Pakistanis continue to cling to South Asian class systems, and the GCC Arabs with their bling and gaudy displays of wealth are the kind of ‘class’ these people aspire to.
Add in the fact that the holiest sites in Islam are located there and the Prophet was an Arab from the region, and you end up combining religious/historic reverence and respect with enormous wealth.
The final product - this rather servile attitude we see.
But when generations see little to no substantive change at home, and continue to lose hope of ever seeing change, attitudes like these towards a people considered ‘successful’ and ‘our kin’ are perhaps just a way for a people to continue to have hope.
